Q&A – Packers Offensive Coordinator Joe Philbin

~Q. You worked with Brett Favre and now Aaron Rodgers. What are some of the differences between the two?

A. I think they’re both very bright in their own way, kind of different. Brett had that country kind of way, but he was very intelligent. He processed football information in a different way than Aaron does but still very quickly. You could see that his mind was excellent on the field. Favre had a great memory schematically of the opposition, and what happened on specific plays. I think Aaron has that mind-set as well. One of the reasons he’s had success in his career is he’s a very bright individual. He prepares very well, and he’s got a quick football mind to process info. Aaron has a reason for why he does things, and I think they’re similar in that way. Brett had a reputation as a gunslinger, but he always had good reasons for doing what he was doing. Personality-wise they’re a little different but both excellent to work with. They’re very bright and wanted to win and do whatever it takes. As a coach, that’s all you can ask for.

Q. The sacks were a huge problem last year. You drafted Bryan Bulaga. Are you confident that the sack problems are more or less a thing of the past? Not necessarily, I kind of take things week to week. I’m not going sit here and say we’re over anything. Every game is different, every week is different, and every opponent is different. As I said during the course of the year, I always felt like our system, not that we’re smarter than anyone else, but we kind of knew what the problems were. It’s not like we’re getting outsmarted every week or the defense is tricking us a whole lot. We just gotta get back to playing more consistently and fundamentally than we had been playing. I’m confident our guys are going to attack that area once we get to training camp and the preseason. I’m confident we can do a much better job. Every year is different. It’s interesting, but we’re kind of a week-to-week operation. We kid ourselves as an offensive staff; we had the highest-scoring Packer offense in history. Holy cow, is that really true? I think our staff does a good job of staying focused on the weekly challenge that we have . . . certainly the sacks are going to be one of them.

We've got excellent talent, a very good work ethic; our attitude's good because we've been around each other for a while. The players have a confidence in their position coaches. That's really important.

A.

Q. The offense has set a lot of records and been successful in the past few years, but how do you view this group going forward?